Liposuction

There are many types of cosmetic surgeries done in the United States. There are the standards – breast augmentation, facelift, rhinoplasty and there are some newer procedures – calf implants, labiaplasty, vaginal rejuvenation. It doesn’t seem to matter what the primary reason is that a patient comes to see a plastic surgeon, at some point in the conversation most patients will say something similar to “Since I’m already having surgery, could you just get rid of “this” (and they’ll grab a particular body part) while you’re there anyway?” Usually it’s the flank or “love handles” for women, and the “beer belly” for men, that are the portion of the body that the patient would like reduced, and usually we do “…get rid of this” for them.

Liposuction is a procedure that seems to be connected to nearly every plastic surgery procedure we do. Abdominoplasty patients achieve a much better result if liposuction is used to remove any remaining fat and to contour the love handles to achieve flow in the body lines. Even for breast augmentation patients, liposuction is used to remove fat that hides under the arm and then shows up on the back when it pops out on top of the bra. So while using an implant to achieve increased breast volume is the primary procedure, using liposuction to remove fat that detracts from the over all aesthetic is also critical to overall patient satisfaction.

Liposuction is a very versatile procedure that can remove pockets of fat that are resistant to diet and exercise. It can be used to smoothly contour and shape nearly any part of the body, but the key is for the surgeon to know which patients are good candidates for the procedure and for the patient to select a surgeon who has superior cannula technique. The cannula is the small wand-like instrument used to remove the fat and fluid through a small incision made near the targeted area. While there are several different methods and types of cannulas being used currently, but there isn’t any one method that stands out from the crowd currently, so selecting a skilled surgeon is still the surest method to achieving the best possible outcome.